


Oh No You Don't!

by TwoKidsInATrenchCoat



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bendy needs a hug, Boris is a good boy, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Henry needs sleep, Human Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Implied/Referenced Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22570456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoKidsInATrenchCoat/pseuds/TwoKidsInATrenchCoat
Summary: The sleep deprived animator Henry Stein begins to notice that some of his food is going missing at night. But what will he do when he finally manages to catch the thief and finds out that there's more to the boy's story?
Relationships: Bendy & Henry Stein, Boris & Henry Stein
Comments: 8
Kudos: 57





	1. Chapter 1

It all started with a couple cans of bacon soup going missing, among other food items, but it was the bacon soup that had tipped Henry off. At first Henry had simply figured that he had misplaced a can or two. But then it started to become harder to just write it off. He would go to bed absolutely sure that there were five cans of soup in his walk-in pantry, but wake up in the morning to find only three left.

At first he had suspected he was eating the stuff in his sleep, but his dog Boris would have woken up and snapped him out of it if he was sleepwalking. So that left only one other explanation. He was being robbed.

Henry at first decided to sleep downstairs on the couch in the hopes of pretending to be asleep and waking up in time to catch whatever it was that was stealing from him. He had intended to stay up, but he must have dosed off at some point because the next thing he knew he jerked awake from the sound of Boris barking as a black figure ran behind him and out the back door.

Boris tried to give chase but the thief slammed the door shut and Boris narrowly manged to skid to a halt and avoid crashing into the door.

Henry wanted to kick himself. He had been so disoriented that he hadn’t been able to get a good look at the thief, but there was one thing he had registered as the shadow had rushed behind him, it was big.

He had originally assumed that it was an animal of some kind, but now he knew it was a human. This was going to be a bit more complicated than he thought.

\--------------------------------------------

Henry put new locks on his doors, even though the thief wasn’t likely to come back after so narrowly escaping. For a while, it looked that way. He carefully kept track of all the food in his house, and not a bit went missing during the night. Eventually Henry began to relax and stopped worrying.

That is, until one night. Henry was up very late. He had been trying to be better about not working through the night, but its not like he would be getting any sleep with the deadline approaching.

He sent Boris to go sleep in the bedroom while he took a break and went to get a drink of water in the kitchen. He couldn’t see very well in the dark but he already knew the layout of his house like the back of his hand, so he didn’t bother to turn on the light. But, looking back, he wished he had.

It took a few seconds but his sleep deprived brain eventually managed to detect faint breathing that was not his own. Henry looked around and noticed a figuring crouching underneath his table remaining still as stone. “Boris?” he questioned, but as his eyes adjusted he could see that the outline of the figure was distinctly not Boris shaped.

The figure suddenly darted out from underneath the table, bolting for the backdoor.

“Oh no you don’t! Henry growled, determined to catch the intruder this time. It was still very dark and he was having trouble making out their features, but he had a gut feeling that this was the same person as last time.

Henry ran to block the back door with speed he didn’t know he had and manged to grab the intruder’s hand when it touched the door knob.

“Get off of me!” the figure grunted, in a voice that was distinctly male, and jerked his hand away from Henry’s grasp before running away in the opposite direction back towards the kitchen.

The figure managed to leap over the kitchen island, leaving him on one side and Henry on the other. Henry tried to move around, but the thief would just move so that they were always on opposite sides of the island.

Then the figure tried to make a break for it, but the animator was quick and the thief had to spin on their heel. Henry ended up chasing him around the kitchen island in circles for a while before having to stop to catch his breath, causing the thief to run around and right into him. Henry swung around and made one last grab for him, but was a second too late and his hand only managed to graze the dampness of the thief’s clothes.

Henry sighed as he heard the back door slam shut. He brought his hand up to wipe the sweat off his brow but then realized that he had unknowingly been clenching something in his hand. He flicked on the lights and saw that it was a white glove. He must have snatched it when he had grabbed the thief’s hand.

\--------------------------------------------

The thief doesn’t come back after that event and Henry was hopeful (but also slightly disappointed) that that was the last time he’d have to deal with the thief. He went about his life and for another two weeks things seem pretty normal.

But once again, fate seemed to decide that Henry had gone too long without having a wrench thrown in his life. That’s why when Henry had gotten up for a midnight snack one night, he heard some shuffling in the walk-in pantry and realized that he had company once again. He approached the small storage room with caution before pushing the half way open door all the way open. Sure enough, it was the very same thief. The figure froze, Henry didn’t know what to say in this situation. 

“Hello?” God, that was lame.

The thief didn’t seem to care about what he said though. The only thing he seemed to care about was getting out. He bolted towards the doorway Henry was standing in, no doubt to try and barrel through the man. Unfortunately for him, Henry was not caught off guard this time and managed to grab the thief’s arm and maintained an ironclad grip, refusing to let go no matter how much he tried to shake him off.

There was a lot of yelling between the two which must have woken up Boris, because Henry saw out of the corner of his eye that his good boy was now guarding the thief’s favorite exit.

Meanwhile, the thief continued to struggle, and pull forward, causing Henry to take a couple of steps back until the two were now inside the walk-in pantry instead of its doorway.

Eventually the thief manged to escape Henry’s grasp, and tried to bolt, but must have still been disoriented because he ended up running further into the pantry and slamming to some of the shelves.

Henry winced in pain and sympathy at the sound. The figure groaned in pain and slunk into a corner making himself as small as possible. Henry wasn’t sure what to do. He took a step closer and knelt down, trying to assess the damage the shelf had done to the thief’s face, “Are you okay?” The thief hissed like a feral cat and threw a can of bacon soup at him.

Henry side stepped to avoid getting hit, but was still deciding what to do. The fact that the thief was still holding his hand to his face most likely meant that there was bleeding. So Henry left the room to go grab his first aid kit leaving Boris to stand guard (sometimes it paid to have a dog that was part wolf).

Upon his return the thief was still curled up in the corner. Henry decided that he had had enough darkness for one night and flicked on the lights before putting his glasses on.

Now he could finally see the thief clearly. He saw a boy in tattered damp black clothing with a ribbon tied around his neck, something reminiscent of a bow tie. He had black spiky hair and his bangs were so long that the covered his eyes. He had pale skin that was a sickly white. Although he was very tall, he appeared to only be in his late teens.

But above all, the kid was skinny. At first, it was hard to tell because of how baggy those black clothes were, but when Henry had reentered the walk-in pantry, the boy had curled in on himself with his back to Henry. This allowed the shirt to pull taught around his back revealing many countable ribs. Henry’s heart cracked a little bit at this sight.

He sat down on the floor and tried to start out gently, “Hey...I’m not going to hurt you.” This only got him a glare, although it was a bit hard to determine the facial expression because the kid’s bangs so much of his face. 

“I have some thing for you.” Henry could feel his heart break in two, seeing how hard the kid flinched. He wanted to reassure the kid, but something told him that the boy wasn’t going to believe anything he said. So instead he silently slipped the glove he had obtained from the previous escape back over to him. The kid looked at the glove and picked it up, but couldn’t put it back on because the ungloved hand was still pressed up to his nose, no doubt because of that injury.

“You need help. Let me treat you.”

The kid instead snatched the medical supplies from Henry, “I don’t need your help,” and tried to do the badges himself, but it quickly became clear that he had no medical experience, because he quickly began to look like a mummy.

Henry swallowed back his laughter and silently held his had out for the bandages. The kid begrudgingly handed them back over and Henry moved slowly and deliberately when patching up the kid, making sure he could always see what Henry was about to do.

Soon enough, the kid was good as new. Once Henry finished packing up the supplies, an awkward silence fell over the two. “Now what?” the thief asked. “I’m not sure.” Henry answered honestly.

“Are ya gonna call the police?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why not? I stole from you. Why are you helping me?”

Henry had been asking himself that exact same question. But deep down, he knew the answer. He just couldn’t bring himself to watch this kid get dragged away and locked up.

“I guess I could get you arrested, but what good would that do?”

“You’d be rid of me.”

“Nah. You’re good company.”

“I threw a can of soup at you,” the kid deadpanned.

“I’ve had worse,” he smiled and shrugged, “I’m Henry by the way. Henry Stein.”

“Henry Stein?” the kid breathed in shock, “As in animator and cofounder of Joey Drew Studios Henry Stein?”

“Yes, I am,” Henry confirmed, not sure what to make of the boy’s recognition, “And you are?”

The kid seemed to choke on his words. After quite a bit of stuttering, Henry was about to say that he didn’t have to talk, but the kid managed to barely audibly mutter, “Bendy.”

“Bendy? Like-?”

“Yeah,” the kid nodded quickly and nervously in response to Henry’s unasked question, curling even further in on himself.

He looked like a scared timid animal despite being so much bigger than Henry. It was almost so ridiculous the animator wanted to laugh. Instead he swallowed his laughter and said, “Well Bendy. Can I offer you something to eat?”

The boy looked at him like he was crazy, “Haven’t I already taken enough of your food?”

“You still look hungry. If you want, we can make a deal out of it. I give you food and in exchange you can’t throw anything else at me.”

Bendy nodded cautiously, “I can agree to those terms.”

Henry got up, cracking his back, “Are you going to get up?” Bendy shook his head no and coiled further into his corner, still clearly not trustful. Henry decided to let him be and silently directed Boris to the back door so Bendy could come out of hiding if he wanted to, but couldn’t make a break for it.

As he started up the stove, the reality of his situation finally hit Henry. He had a boy in his pantry. He had a boy in his pantry who he was now making grilled cheese for. Working for Joey Drew had left him unfazed by unusual events, but this one was definitely new. 

He put one sandwich on a plate for himself and two sandwiches on a second plate for his guest.

He made his way back to the walk-in pantry and the sight he was met with surprised him. Henry always had some extra paper and pens lying around in each room, just in case inspiration hit him. That way he would be able to write it down as quickly as possible.

It appears that Bendy had found the stash he kept on the bottom shelf and was extremely invested in his drawing because he hadn’t noticed Henry in the doorway.

“You can draw?”

The boy let out a high pitched yelp, “No!” and dropped the pen and paper as if they had suddenly caught on fire. Henry chuckled, not having expected the thief to have endeared himself so quickly to the older man.

Henry sat down on the pantry floor with Bendy, and slowly, making sure that Bendy could see what he was about to do, picked up the drawing and switched it for the plate with two grilled cheeses on it. The boy eyed them hungrily, but still seemed suspicious.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t put anything in them. I may be well off, but arsenic is far too expensive these days.”

Bendy snorted at the joke and risked a bite. After a couple seconds of chewing, Bendy quickly began to tuck into the rest of his meal.

Henry smiled and sat back, his own sandwich in one hand, the drawing in the other. Now that he had a better view of it, he could really appreciate the detail, despite it being a bit rough around the edges. It was of Bendy, the cartoon one. He was balancing on a unicycle, juggling six cans of bacon soup. As the character’s original creator, Henry could say that this was absolutely the sort of hijinx that the little devil darling would get into. He chuckled at the silliness of the picture, but felt a lot of appreciation for its artist, “You know, this isn’t half bad kid.”

“Thanks,” Bendy replied dryly, clearly thinking that Henry wasn’t being sincere.

“Is this why you like Bendy so much? You liked drawing and were... well, drawn to Bendy.”

The non-cartoon Bendy hesitated before confessing, “No. It’s the other way around. I first saw Bendy and...he made me smile when very few things would. But when I...stopped having access to a TV, I couldn’t see him, so I figured that I would start trying to recreate him myself,” he finished scarfing down the last of his second sandwich, “I’m not very good at it though.”

Henry hummed in acknowledgment, “I suppose that there is room for improvement.”

The animator stifled a laugh at the boy’s offended look at Henry agreeing with him about the drawing’s quality. “There’s some shading here that can be more evened out and some lines that are crooked, but nothing that can’t be fixed with practice.”

Bendy scoffed and Henry was pretty sure he rolled his eyes behind his bangs. 

The gears in Henry’s head began to turn. This was surely a stupid idea. He swears somedays that Joey is rubbing off on him. But he knew he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t take the chance, “I’d like to make another deal with you.”

“Okay?”   
  


“You stick around and don’t steal from others. In exchange I’ll help you improve your skills.”

“I don’t know about this.”

“I’ll also give you bacon soup.”

“Deal.”

Henry smiled and got up. “You know, I think it’s time we got reintroduced. My name’s Henry, Henry Stein.” He said while extending a hand out.

The boy smiled the first real smile Henry had ever seen from him, and took the hand allowing Henry to pull him up. “Nice to meet you Henry. I’m Bendy.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some backstory

Silence, darkness. Nothing but silence and darkness. He’d never liked either of those things but they were preferable to the yelling and bright light. Silence and darkness were good. They meant he was safe.

The boy leaned up against the cool concrete wall and sighed. He still ached from his last punishment, but at least he could pretend that the coldness of the concrete was ice being put on his bruises.

It wasn’t a very comfortable place to sleep, but it would do. If anything, it was he himself that made sleeping so uncomfortable. His boney body forced him to constantly toss and turn, causing him to loose sleep. Or did it? There weren’t any windows here so he didn’t know if it was night or day. Had he had slept? Had he been awake this whole time? He honestly couldn’t tell anymore. He’d been down here so long it was hard to say.

Suddenly the basement door swung open. The room flooded with blinding light. This was bad. He could drunken, angry shouts from the top of the stairs. He heard those all too familiar footsteps tromping down the stairs and the boy knew what would come next.

He had to get out! He couldn’t take this anymore! He ran towards the figure and barreled through them, running up the stairs. It was so bright inside, but he could see that it was dark outside. Bright, bad. Dark, good. So without any deliberation he fled into the inky black night.

There was angry shouting behind him so he ran and ran and ran and ran and ran. He didn’t know for how long. At some point the shouting behind him must have stopped, but it was playing on loop so loudly in his head that he couldn’t tell, so he kept on running just to be safe.

He ran and ran and ran until finally his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed from exhaustion in an alleyway. Curling up on top of some trash bags, the boy took a moment to assess his situation.

He was out! He was free! He felt the first smile he’d ever had in a while creeping up into his face, but it vanished when the painful sensation of his stomach growling hit him. 

It’s not like he wasn’t used to the sensation, but so many years in the basement had rendered him quite numb to hunger. However, he supposed that running for who knows how long would be enough to have even his neglected body begging for food again.

But now he could actually do something about his hunger…..but could he though? Sure he was free in a sense, but it’s not like he had much freedom in any other aspect. He didn’t exactly have a plan. How would he eat? Could he get a job? Would anybody hire him? Was he even old enough to work? Would he have to give an employer a false name? What even was his name? The boy didn’t know the answer to any of these questions.

The realization that he didn’t know the answer to that last question especially stung. What was his name?

The boy shifted on top of the trash bags he was sitting on and winced when something poked at his leg. A leaky fountain pen had poked its way out of the trash bag. The boy picked it up and fiddled with it as he continued to contemplate his predicament.

He’s pretty sure that you couldn’t hire somebody without a name. The boy thought back to his childhood, trying to remember. But the only thing that flashed through his brain were painful memories. Quickly, he shoved them aside.

However, as he sat back, one not so painful memory came to his mind. Bendy. He remembered Bendy, the little devil darling. Bendy was always able to make him smile. Bendy kept on trying, so why should he? He’d find a way to survive. He’s already made it this far.

His eyes turned to the pen in his hand, and he turned to the wooden wall behind him. He drew a small sketch of the demon. It was rough and not really recognizable, but if the boy was being entirely honest with himself, Bendy was now all he had. That’s when an idea came to him.

Would it be plagiarism? Could he get sued or arrested? Well he couldn’t think of anything else, so why not? Besides, it was highly unlikely that he’d end up running into the actual creator. So the boy decided then and there, “Bendy,” he said to himself, “My name is Bendy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might do a third chapter. IDK.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I want to write any more chapters or leave it as it is. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
